The Need For Forest Carbon Accounting

Global climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges facing society today.  Human-induced disturbances to the global carbon cycle  – particularly the burning of fossil fuels and, to a lesser extent, changes in land-use patterns – have led to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is affecting the earth’s climate.

Forests exchange carbon dioxide (CO₂), an important greenhouse gas, with the atmosphere through the processes of photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition. CO₂ emissions are also associated with natural disturbances, including wildfires and defoliating insect and bark beetle outbreaks. Forest management can also influence the exchange of carbon between the forest and atmosphere in many ways. For example, the harvest of wood products and biofuels transfers carbon out of the forest, but provides fibre and energy to meet society's demands. Silviculture and management of disturbances can, under certain circumstances, help protect existing forest carbon stocks and/or enhance the uptake of carbon from the atmosphere. Net changes in forest carbon stocks determine whether a forest ecosystem is a net source or a net sink for atmospheric carbon. A forest is composed of many stands, some of which may be carbon sinks and some carbon sources. Overall, it is the forest’s net carbon balance that must be accounted by adding up the ever-changing contributions of all the stands.

Canada’s forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle.  Detailed, scientifically rigorous forest carbon accounting helps scientists fully understand this role and whether or not it is likely to change in the future.  Climate change could subject Canadian forests to changes in productivity, decomposition, regeneration, and succession, as well as changes to species, species communities and their geographic distributions.  Canadian forests may also be subject to more frequent, extreme storms and wind damage, greater stress due to drought, and more frequent and severe fire and insect disturbances.

Policy makers and practitioners are also interested in forest carbon accounting.  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) all recognize the importance of forests in the global carbon cycle.  Under these global initiatives, Canada reports changes in forest carbon stocks and non-CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions resulting from forest management and land use change (afforestation, reforestation, and deforestation).  At the provincial, territorial and local level, forest resource managers are increasingly interested in including carbon in their forest management planning activities – forest carbon accounting helps them do this.

The Canadian Forest Service’s Forest Carbon Accounting Program is a national initiative involving scientists from across the country.  It has been established to:

• Improve stakeholder understanding of the role of Canada’s forests in the global carbon cycle;
• Establish the National Forest Carbon Monitoring Accounting and Reporting System (NFCMARS) to meet reporting requirements such as the UNFCCC, criteria and indicators reporting under the Montreal Protocol, reporting to the FAO, and others;
• Develop forest carbon accounting tools and methodologies to enable forest resource managers to consider carbon in their forest-management activities.

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